So, another Christmas, shot to hell.
Actually, we had a good time, mostly because Aurora and I worked hard to keep it low-key. We invited over actor/playwright Mark Knight and producer/playwright/resident curmudgeon Bill McKinlay. Still giddy from the tiny pies I talked about in my last post, we made savory pies for dinner, to wit, chicken, fish, and mushroom (that’s three different pies, not one pie with those three things). Knowing that we would have more guests than martini glasses, I rectified the situation with a perusal of eBay, finding the gems in the photo. The previous owner received them in 1944 as a wedding present and never used them because they were too nice. As you can see, we corrected that misconception in a hurry.
Speaking of Mark Knight, I wanted to mention his reading from two weeks ago. This was part of Bill McKinlay’s reading series at Plays and Players, which occurs on the third Tuesday of every month at 8 pm (although, we’ve been arriving at 7:30-ish, as a social thing). Despite some logic problems, Mark’s play was nicely written. I don’t envy the rewriting job ahead of him; the audience feedback suggested that he should flesh out two of his lesser-developed characters. Ultimately, this is a good thing, because even if he decides to keep it as a shorter piece, his work on the characters’ backgrounds will greatly inform their presence on-stage. However, I happen to know from experience that while you’re writing it, there’s a lot of grumbling and cursing under your breath and trying to wrangle the plot into something that still makes sense. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with it, but mostly because I’m not the one doing it. Hurray for me!
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